This invention relates to communication and collaboration tools which allow groups to share information across time and space using computer and other communication channels. The inventive method may be incorporated into the design of products such as groupware software and communications services.
The conventional approach to the design of communication and collaboration products, especially of groupware, is a centripetal method, i.e., group members are required to go to a central area in order to retrieve and exchange data and information. For example, in the Internet, group members need to converge on a server in order to communicate and collaborate.
The previous approaches taken in this field can be categorized in two different product groups:
(1) Centripetal method: This method is seen in all of the following products: IBM's Lotus Notes and Domino; Microsoft's Exchange and NetMeeting; Netscape's Virtual Office by Concentric; Radnet's Webshare; Novell's GroupWise; Thuridion's Crew; IntraACTIVE's In Tandem; Linkstar's HotOffice; Changepoint's Involv; Internet Media Inc.'s 3-2-1 Intranet; and others. All of these products require group members to remember to go to a central area (a server) in order to retrieve and exchange data and information. This centripetal design leads producers to develop products by increasing the speed of connection and facilitating access to the central site of communication and collaboration. Using the client-server infrastructure, products are either proprietary servers, enhanced software clients, or both.
(2) Narrowcasting method: This method is seen in all of the following products: PointCast's Client and Server; Marimba's Castanet; Progressive Network's Real Clients and Servers; Microsoft's NetShow; Netscape's Browser and Media Server; Wayfarer's INCISA; and all listserve products. All of these products use the narrowcasting model of one-to-many communication. Group members (many) have to remember to "tune-in" or attend the narrowcasted content served by a central site (one), without knowing whether or not new or relevant information is there.
Both the centripetal and narrowcasting approaches suffer from the disadvantage that group members have to report and remember to report to a central area for communication and collaboration. While they have not failed as models, they have failed to anticipate problems associated with the information age such as information glut and competition for attention. Prior art methods assume that value is added by improving the way group members go about retrieving information that updates at a central location. Collaborative value is stored in the central repository. Group members still must actively go to the central resource to get any information or value from the group. For example, in the Internet, a group member would need to remember to log into a server for a videoconferencing appointment at a designated time. It would be an improvement to such a system for appointments and reminders for appointments to be "pushed" to the group member's awareness via e-mail with a Web hyperlink to the videoconference, via a narrowcast of the appointment, or other technologies that drive the information outward to the group member.
In the digital era, the computer has increasingly become a substitute for physical presence and interaction. Designers, however, have focused on providing cheaper and quicker access and offering additional functionality such as manipulation of the data and information sought. In the attempt to mimic human interaction such as congregating in a town hall for a meeting (a centripetal method) via electronic means, the power of the electronic medium to conduct the meeting outside of the town hall has been ignored.